


Great as the Sea

by Valkirin



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Skywalker Family Feels, The Force, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2018-11-22 16:44:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11384253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valkirin/pseuds/Valkirin
Summary: Rescuing the last of Alderaan's survivors was an important duty, not an obsession, and Leia did not need to take a break. She did not have time to think about Darth Vader, the Force, or Luke Skywalker. It’s just her luck that the Force sends her with Luke Skywalker to a time where Darth Vader is about to rise.





	1. Cold Lonely Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Long ago in a faraway headspace I thought I would respectfully avoid writing in the Star Wars fandom because the complexity and depth seemed overwhelming. I also enjoy time-travel stories but logistics kept me from letting any time-related ideas get too serious. Then I somehow ended up with this plot-bunny involving time travel and Star Wars and it took on a life of its own through[Kayasurin](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayasurin/pseuds/Kayasurin/)'s reckless and greatly appreciated encouragement and dialog skills. [TheDoktor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoktor/pseuds/TheDoktor) pinch-hit as a beta and cleaned up several things I’d been trying to fix. Elements of Tatooine slave culture are influenced very strongly by [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril)'s works._
> 
> _Polite movie-canon corrections are welcome as well as especially cool pieces of story from the side works. I’ve done my best with background research but I care a lot more about the emotions than the jargon._

Leia pretended that she didn’t hear the knocking on her door. She could be in the ‘fresher. She could be napping after spending half her night going through reports to make sure that not one distress signal had been left uninvestigated. She could be back in one of the conference rooms trying to create a census of Alderaan’s surviving ex-citizens. She ignored the second burst of knocking as well. Most people didn’t know she had taken a junior officer’s berth complete with a tiny desk and comfortable chair instead of larger suite that doubled as meeting space. Having a private room aboard the _Home One_ as the Rebellion moved their base was a privilege of her rank. Her uninvited visitor did not need to know that she was sitting only six paces from the door. 

Just four days ago they had found another shuttle crammed with three families that had been visiting relatives in Bespin. The Empire was questioning every person found on a ship with an Alderaan registration and Rebel intelligence said that most of those citizens were never seen again. The Empire was still searching through her people to find the Rebellion. If she stayed at the tiny cramped desk and focused on her datapad, the cramped room felt nothing like her prison on the Death Star.

Most visitors only knocked once. They would rap against the door several times and before she bothered to stand up they would be long gone. A few would repeat the knocking for a while but no one had lasted more than twelve standard minutes. 

Thirty-eight standard minutes later, the odd little cadence of a knock was still sounding every two minutes. She hadn’t been able to spare any focus for her datapad for the past half-hour and refused to admit that she was grateful for the distraction. Her eyes had been staging a rebellion of their own by seeing the world as blurred and overly bright. Leia carefully entered in the series of passcodes that left her datapad useful only as a paperweight. She tucked it into desk’s locking drawer before sliding her chair back into place. 

Leia knew how to make most of the Rebellion’s ranking officers give her space. Most of the others were too shy to approach her. Han had chatted with her when he saw her in one of the hangars but he wouldn’t want to wander through the star cruiser’s long and monotonous corridors trying to find her door. He preferred to fly missions all through the journey and not stay more than a night or two before he and Chewie headed back out. 

Luke was staying close. He had gone with Han a few times, she knew, but only because Leia read most of Han’s after-action reports. They were a nice contrast to some of the floridly written intelligence reports that a few rookies kept submitting. Han’s were either insultingly short or rudely detailed. When Luke went along, they tended to be rudely detailed and funny enough that they made her smile.

Her soft-soled shoes were comfortable for everything except stomping. Stomping across the narrow confines of her room was petty and below her dignity. That made stomping worth the shock of vibrations in her feet. She slammed her hand against the door control.

Luke was sitting cross-legged on the floor outside of her room with his lightsaber balanced across his left thigh. He had his back to the wall and half of his attention on his datapad. He was playing one of those games that simulated flying a ship. From the way he was settled very comfortably into his seat on the hard floor, he had actually been knocking on her door with the hilt of his lightsaber. Luke tilted his head back until he was looking up at her even as his fingers continued to move over the datapad. From the increase in faint noises coming from the game, he was possibly doing better when he wasn’t looking at the display. 

Leia had already decided that she didn’t have it in her to be vicious. She was tired and Luke already had points in her book for not blurting out something awful that was meant to be comforting. “What do you want?” 

Luke paused the game and took all of his attention away from the datapad. “When’s the last time you ate?” 

Leia frowned when the answer didn’t come easily. “This morning.” She wouldn’t mention that she’d had three meals total in the last two days. “You don’t have anything else worth doing?” 

He shrugged. “Probably not? Even if there is, it’s nothing that couldn’t be put off a while. I haven’t seen you in days and I was worried.” 

Leia was half a step back before she realized that he wasn’t going to say anything else. He wasn’t going to say that it wasn’t like her to be alone or that her parents wouldn’t want her to grieve or that Alderaan deserved a strong princess. He would just say he was worried. She was still mad at too many other people to respond to his concern with calm words. “I can handle myself. I’ve been busy making sure that no one is overlooked while we try to find all of the people that were off-planet when Alderaan was destroyed.” 

“I know you can handle yourself.” Luke stood in one effortless motion. He clipped the lightsaber hilt to his belt and tucked his datapad under one arm in the next moment. “But… if all I can do is bring you something to eat, or keep you company while you work, I’ll do that. Other than going with Han once in a while, I’m not good at what the Rebellion needs right now. I fly some of the drills and help with maintenance but that leaves a lot of time. I’d like to help you if I can.” 

Standing back inside her doorway helped Luke’s offer sound better. She liked the _Home One_ , really, but she felt tiny and insignificant in her private quarters. That was only a tiny step up from feeling panicked and claustrophobic in crowds but it was at least a private place to lose her mind. From what she knew about Luke, he wouldn’t ask imbecilic questions about whether it had hurt when Alderaan was destroyed or whether she missed her parents or if she was okay after being captured. 

Even better, Leia was fairly certain that Luke would leave if she told him to go away. He might repeat the offer another time but he wouldn’t barge into her rooms or try to coax Artoo into opening her door. 

If Luke joined her, she would at least have someone on her side the next time someone thought they should suddenly tell her how they had been very close with her parents. Leia’s parents had made it quite clear which people they considered friends. Her mother was the queen—had been the queen. It was dangerous to presume just anyone would be a personal friends of the monarch. 

Leia resolutely did not consider that she would always be a princess, now, because there was no Alderaan to await a new queen. “Has anyone invited you to the officers’ mess yet? I’d say destroying the Death Star qualifies you.” 

“Mostly I eat with the pilots when I’m on drills and sweet-talk the cooks when I’m not,” he admitted cheerfully. He didn’t say a word when she locked the door to her room and checked the lock twice. He only started talking when they started walking down the corridor. “I’m from a desert planet on the Outer Rim. They like figuring out which spices and dishes I’ve never seen. Sometimes, though, I get to surprise them. I could’ve stuck a whole handful of steelwood pods in Arko’s mouth when I told him I’d had steelwood candy-flowers before. It’s not that hard to find on Tatooine.” His mouth twisted in a frown. “People wouldn’t think of exporting it, really, because that’s seen as a slave crop.” 

Some senators would still be shocked that slavery existed. Leia’s parents had never shielded her from all of the darkness in the galaxy, though, even to the point of letting her join the Rebellion. They told her the flaws of the old Republic they hoped to avoid after restoring democracy. She knew slavery wasn’t only tucked away on rim worlds. It just seemed odd that Luke would be so aware of the bad. He seemed so untouchably good-natured and naïve.

Luke shook his head before she could think of how to reply. "I went a little overboard with the mint first time Arko let me cook my own food. There was just so much of it.” 

Leia liked mint and nearly every cook onboard had decided that they would shove sugary foods toward her given half a chance. “Have you had any of the desserts with mint?”

Luke tilted his head away. "Dessert?" he asked, somewhat doubtfully.

For the first time in days, Leia repressed the urge to smile. She nodded seriously. “Dessert. I know that people have been worried about me but everyone else has been too shy to stay or too pushy. They keep telling me how to feel or telling me how lucky I am. Mint frosty treat is the least that people can give us instead of platitudes.”

“Mint frosty treat doesn't sound like something that'd happen on a desert planet."

“It sounds like something that should happen on a desert planet,” Leia replied. “If this Rebellion actually works…” She hesitated. She’d only heard Luke mention what happened to his aunt and uncle in passing. He had to know it was her fault but she wasn’t ready to change the conversation to the apology he deserved. “Well. My parents always said slavery is one of the reasons that the Old Republic failed. The Republic’s core worlds thought they were doing so well that they could afford to ignore that some people were starving or enslaved. When the Emperor’s gone maybe the Hutts will be next to lose power.”

"That'd be nice, but..." He fiddled with the data pad and wouldn’t meet her eyes. "You, the Republic... you can't just sweep in and rescue people."

“Of course not,” Leia agreed immediately. She shook her head to clear the image of swooping in from the sky and waving around a lightsaber like she was some kind of Jedi on behalf of the Republic. It sounded like something from the Hero Without Fear holos that her mother had watched with her. “But I was a Senator, before the Senate was dissolved, and I suppose I’m still a princess. I can make sure someone working to end slavery has political support and send resources to the right people.”

Luke’s sudden smile was shocking in its sharpness. "Teach me how to be properly sneaky in a political way and I’ll help. I know the people who'd be best leading a Tatooine-sized rebellion if they don't get killed first." Strangely, he said that in a fond tone of voice. "But the best people to overthrow the Hutts are also the worst people to talk to political muckety-mucks, unless you want people getting stabbed for saying hello on a bad day."

“I’ll teach you all the politics you want. Besides,” she replied, nudging him in the side slightly. He was the first person she’d touched in days. “You’re one to talk. You can’t just sweep in and rescue people?”

Luke’s smile widened. "I'm a Jedi now, right? Well, will be anyway. Jedi are supposed to sweep in and take care of the evils no one else can. My aunt said that's why the Empire had them killed.” 

“My parents said that the Jedi lost their purpose. The Jedi worked as the Republic’s negotiators and peacekeepers and enforcers and forgot that the Jedi once stood for something beyond being someone’s force of bodyguards and generals.” She still could picture the look on her father’s face when he described the slow end of the Republic. “Before the Emperor took over, the Senate voted to give him power over the Jedi.”

"Well, once you start following rules instead of morality, you forget what's important." Luke turned toward her when she didn’t respond. He didn’t slow his pace a hair even while walking backwards. Both of his eyebrows rose when she still said nothing. "This is where you splutter, lecture, or tell me I'll learn now that I'm off the farm, by the way."

“If I cared about rules, I wouldn’t be here. I would try to do my best within the Senate and I would have been done the moment the Senate was shuttered. I care about results and doing the right thing so I joined the Rebellion.” She could still picture her last fight with her parents. It had been embarrassing that her mother had been teary-eyed with pride and her father had hugged her after they let her argue with them for two hours straight. They had to know that she was joining the Rebellion because of her own convictions, not theirs. 

Leia slowed. The corridors in a ship looked mostly uniform. She had thought that it was a happy coincidence they hadn’t passed anyone after the first minute and poor memory that had her walking farther than expected to reach the officer’s mess. Now she was wondering why they still hadn’t reached a landmark. After the thought crossed her mind, she realized that there were no landmarks to see. “This hallway doesn’t have any doors.”

Luke slowly turned in a full circle and stopped with his back to hers. She knew without looking that he had a hand on the hilt of his lightsaber. She had her blaster drawn. 

Several breaths later, Luke relaxed. Breathing was all she could hear past the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears. “Can you feel it?” he asked quietly. 

Leia glanced over her shoulder at him. “Feel what?” 

“The Force.” His chin had lifted slightly and his eyes were closed. He looked like he was listening to a song. “It’s asking you, too.” 

Leia bit down the reflexive protest that she was no Jedi. She had read the old articles about signs of Force-sensitive children. She had never made things levitate but she had always had an uncanny knack for cold reading. With the way her parents had kindly but persistently refused to say anything about her biological parents… 

Nearly every one of her sudden intuitions or mild precognitions was an accident. She decided on a whim to give one of their trusted intelligence agents a false lead. The same false information appeared in Imperial hands quickly enough to warn the Rebellion they had another traitor. She would just know that someone around the corner was waiting to harm her and she would signal one of her companions to have blasters ready.

She also had known that Darth Vader hated her. He had torn through the shields she’d never consciously felt with flames of cold hatred and anger that burned where they touched. 

“Just… listen,” Luke said quietly. “Don’t think about it too much. It’s a little like using your peripheral vision but with all your senses.”

She tried to remember the itch in her shoulder blades that came with some intuitive leaps. When that didn’t work, she tried relaxing instead and did her best to not gape at the difference of sensation when she stopped trying to feel something specific. Listening to Luke seemed easier than trying to feel the Force. Luke felt calm; he was rock-solid in who he was, she thought, and trusted that the feeling all around them was good. 

With Luke at her back, she re-holstered her blaster and closed her eyes. She didn’t know how something she couldn’t see or touch could ask a question without words but she could feel the offer. She could learn something that she would need to know. She would come back to her own place in the galaxy with nothing changed. Alderaan would be gone and her parents would be dead and she would still feel that part of her was missing. But if she agreed, she would have knowledge that would help her cause. 

Luke was going to let her decide. She could feel his choice. 

Leia was not going to spend years wondering what she would have learned if only she’d taken the chance. Yes, she decided. She might have gone alone but she would rather go with Luke at her back. 

When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t in the strange unending corridor with no doors. She was still back-to-back with Luke but this hallway looked nothing like an altered version of the _Home One_. Even stranger, two people were staring at them that definitely had not been on the star cruiser. 

Luke had been the only Jedi aboard their ship. He was possibly the only Jedi in the galaxy. Now they were standing on a narrow causeway looking at two Jedi, and one of them looked quite a bit like the main actor from the Hero With No Fear holovids.


	2. Blood Like Winter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I looked through several detailed summaries to decide where Luke and Leia should land before deciding it would be right after Anakin and Obi-Wan’s last meeting as friends in the original prequels. I ended up two chapters in before I realized that Yoda was off on Kashyyyk at this point in the prequels, not in the Temple, but I like Yoda too much to edit him back out. I am working under the assumption that Chewbacca is resourceful as ever and managed without Yoda’s direct backing._

Leia had spent weeks on the _Home One_ as the Rebellion took a cautious path toward Hoth. Leia had sat through command staff meetings and sent other people on rescue missions to find Alderaan’s last people when she wasn’t hiding in her room. She hadn’t set foot off the ship and avoided conference rooms with a view of open space. Abruptly finding herself on an open causeway in the sunlight was just as disconcerting as staring at two Jedi. 

The man standing closer to her had red-tinged brown hair and a closely cropped beard. He was wearing relics out of history, from where she had been standing just a minute before, but he wore them well. The brown robe over a cream-colored tunic didn’t completely hide the lightsaber at his belt. She didn’t think the ‘saber was meant to be hidden.

Behind him, though, she could see a man robed in dark brown who looked quite a bit like the Hero With No Fear. She shifted closer to Luke and wished for a moment that they could have a moment to talk without anyone else overhearing. If that was Anakin Skywalker… 

She had never asked Luke about his parents. With a last name like Skywalker, maybe she should have. 

“Perhaps I will not be heading to Utapau just yet,” the closer man said mildly. “It seems that you may gain a second chance in a day to practice patience with the Council, Anakin.” 

Leia rested her hand on Luke’s back. She felt the sharp inhale of breath and hoped he would be able to hold himself back. If they really were looking at Anakin Skywalker…well, she wasn’t sure what they were supposed to learn, but she never liked to give too much information away at once. 

This was not what she planned for when she left her room, Leia thought in a flash of better humor, but at least she got to see just what it looked like when two Jedi were shocked speechless. Three, if she counted Luke. 

Leia was a princess. Even without Alderaan, even if she suspected that her few remaining people would never need a queen, she was a princess and a senator and a diplomat. She stepped forward to stand at Luke’s side and thanked the spirits of her ancestors that she had been wearing one of her nicer dresses instead of a bathrobe when Luke knocked.

“We come in peace,” she said. Leia focused on maintaining her pleasant mask of an expression when she could feel the crawling sense of someone studying her mind and tried not to relax too obviously when the sensation withdrew. She would have time to wonder why she could feel things so acutely when she didn’t have Jedi staring at her.

“You come with the Force,” the older Jedi agreed with a nod. “I am Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Master Jedi and a member of the Jedi Council. This is Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, a fellow member of the Council.” 

There was an ephemeral flash of some emotion that wasn’t hers but it vanished before she could puzzle it out. She couldn’t spare attention for a Jedi’s fleeting emotion when she was busy worrying what Luke might say.

“My name is Luke Whitesun. This is my cousin, Leia Whitesun,” Luke improvised with creditable sincerity. The best liars always looked like blue butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth.

Obi-Wan nodded politely. Nothing in his expression or demeanor gave a hint of his emotions. If he believed the Code, he may very well try to not have any emotions at all. “Welcome to the Jedi Temple, Luke and Leia Whitesun.” He paused when a beeping sound emerged from his side. “If my guess is correct, this will be the council.” 

The deep voice that emerged from the comm sounded far angrier than she would have expected from a Jedi. “Kenobi, you want to tell me why we just had a very large disturbance in the Force?”

“We have visitors, Master Windu,” Obi-Wan replied calmly. “Two guests actually appeared on the causeway when I was about to board my ship. So far only a couple of my men have noticed them.” 

“Your mission will have to wait. Please escort our guests here for a new Council meeting and let Skywalker know we’ll convene shortly. Windu out.” 

Obi-Wan looked completely unsurprised by the terse exchange. He also looked exactly as her father had described him in her favorite bedtime stories. 

Leia looked around the wide space in the open hangar. There were a few men in orange-accented armor with disconcertingly similar faces glancing down at them. Clones. She tried to quickly shuttle aside the feelings of dread. They had all been loyal to the Emperor, she remembered, but her father had insisted it wasn’t their fault. 

Obi-Wan raised his hand to wave to an armored man on the ship. Leia turned her back to the railing to watch both of them. “There will be a delay, Commander Cody,” Obi-Wan told the man. “We have a couple surprise guests that will need an escort. I’ll comm later with an update.”

“Of course, general,” the man replied. “We’ll be ready when you are.”

Leia focused on maintaining her composure as they walked through the Temple. Luke was thrilled to look around and his earnest curiosity coaxed Obi-Wan into narrating a tour as they walked. Leia fell in step beside Anakin. He was a fairly imposing figure in his dark cloak and tunic, she thought, with a black glove to cover a prosthetic hand. 

Luke fit in well. Nearly every person they passed wore neutral tones. Luke’s brown shirt and black pants were from spares, like many other pilots, and the beige canvas bag slung over his shoulder clinked softly with a few of his personal tools. Unlike the other Rebel pilots, he had tucked a lightsaber in with his wrenches and spanners shortly after calling himself Whitesun. 

Leia felt even more out of place than the man walking next to her. Her vividly white gown seemed completely impractical when she was surrounded by armored fighters and light-toned outfits. Skywalker was an unusual Jedi but still part of the Order. Once they passed the clones, she was the only visible non-Jedi. 

She had been content to walk in silence. She should have suspected that Luke’s father was only searching for something to say.

“Where are you and Luke from?” Anakin asked.

If she’d been paying attention to anything beyond the novelty of free-thinking clone troopers and living Jedi, she would have been building a solid background for Luke’s lie. As it was, she was stuck with the truth. “He’s from Tatooine,” Leia replied. From Anakin’s sudden interest, there was no way any lie she had planned would fool him. “I only met Luke after my parents died.” 

The suspicious glint in his eye dimmed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pry.” 

“It’s hardly prying,” she replied gently. Leia would doubt anyone that suddenly appeared in a Rebellion base. Worse, he was right to be suspicious and Leia was still lying to him. “It’s new to me as well. All of this is new to me. I didn’t know much of anything about the Force before my parents died.” 

“I was a late learner, too.” His lips turned into a smile even as his eyes remained unchanged. “If you’ll pardon me, though, it doesn’t seem that you’ll become a Jedi. Luke isn’t that imposing either.” 

“I’m not offended. If anything, I don’t know why I’m here,” she admitted freely. Being honest when she could took some of the sting away from deceiving her father’s friend from the wars. Ignoring his slight on Luke also let her feel that she was a well-mannered guest. “It might just be because Luke wouldn’t have wanted to leave me alone. Most of my friends don’t want to talk about my parents because it still hurts too much.” 

If she hadn’t been looking at him, she would have missed the way he looked at the ground instead of his surroundings. “Losing parents can be difficult,” he said. “The Jedi understand that people that do not practice detachment feel this much more keenly.” 

Leia glanced behind them for a moment as if she only wanted to study the soaring columns as they passed through a wide antechamber. No one was close enough to listen in. “Losing parents is difficult even with detachment,” she retorted quietly. “As you said, though, I’m no Jedi. I can add extra names into remembering the dead and people can just think I’m sentimental.” She lit a candle for the parents she had lost long before Alderaan. Every year, it seemed that her mother and father would be ready to tell her who they were, and every year they said it was too dangerous. 

He didn’t reply. He didn’t look any more upset, when she glanced his way, but he definitely did not look interested in continuing that line of thought. She was thinking about what color candle might do for his parents when he finally replied. 

“If you would—”

“It would be my honor.” 

Anakin didn’t reply for so long that she turned her thoughts from an appropriate memorial for unknown people to wondering just how many Jedi lived in the massive Temple full-time. “Her name was Shmi,” Anakin said quietly. “She deserved more.” 

Shmi, Leia repeated to herself. From the way that Anakin strode forward immediately, so quickly she had to half-trot to keep up, she knew that the subject was closed. She couldn’t bring herself to mind. The faster pace let them catch up with Luke and Obi-Wan and it also let Anakin pretend that he didn’t just have an emotional moment with a stranger.

“The Council meets here,” Obi-Wan was telling Luke. “All too frequently, it seems, but this will be something of a special circumstance.” 

“It’s a special circumstance for me, too.” Luke tugged his tool bag higher on his shoulder. “I still don’t know why I’m here.” 

The doors to the chamber opened. Past Obi-Wan and Luke, Leia could see a broad room with an entire wall of windows letting in the midday sun. It was harder to see any specific Jedi with the light behind them but there was one humanoid standing in the doorway. 

“Master Kenobi,” the new Jedi said. “I see you’ve brought everyone. Knight Skywalker, the Council would like you to wait here with our female guest to be sure that she doesn’t go anywhere unescorted. Until someone gives the all-clear, all information about them is restricted to Council members only. The rest of the Council will address him first,” he finished with a nod toward Luke.

Leia probably would have done the same if two strange Jedi had appeared on a ship she controlled. She still didn’t have to like being separated from her only guaranteed ally. When Luke glanced her way, she made the Rebel handsign for ‘okay’ and reminded herself that the Force had brought them here. 

Anakin made a curt half-bow toward the Jedi Master before stepping aside.

Luke and Obi-Wan followed the man into the chamber. Leia tried to decide just which part of the Jedi’s declaration had left Anakin’s prosthetic hand clenching inside of its glove. When the door shut, Leia realized that she had been relying on Luke’s presence by her side. She could sense him, a little, and wondered if her newfound ease in the Force would fade. With the closed door between them the Temple felt colder.

Anakin seemed content to seethe and ignore her. He was fiddling with a datapad and leaning against one of the tall windows that looked out into midday Coruscant traffic. The aircars kept whizzing by as if there wasn’t a single thing strange about the Force leaving two people in the middle of history. 

She lost all interest in the view when the Jedi’s fidgeting stopped all at once. If she wasn’t mistaken, he was typing a comm message. Being excluded from the Council meeting likely stung, even with the duty of keeping her from wandering into secret areas, but their only directives had been to keep her in the room and not spread news to anyone until he talked it over with the Council. Who would he comm? 

Leia debated an attempt at tactful diplomacy before choosing bluntness. “The Council must have its reasons for keeping this matter secret.” 

“The Council might have elaborated if they wanted me to agree to their commands,” he replied coolly. He didn’t look away from his datapad. “They’ve been all too secretive lately. It erodes trust.” 

Leia raised a brow. If he wanted to battle in chill politeness, she would prefer that to feigned friendliness. Obviously talking about his mother hadn’t led to lasting feelings of goodwill. “You know better than all of them?” 

“They’ve been trying to keep things from the Supreme Chancellor.” 

She could feel her heart skip a beat. Luke’s father couldn’t have supported that man. Anakin Skywalker was supposed to be the hero of the war. Her mother had cautioned that the old holos painted a rosier picture than the truth but the entire galaxy had known his name at least. What could Palpatine offer one of the strongest Jedi in the temple? She deliberately reined in her suspicion before she started making the wrong conclusions. “Chancellor Palpatine.” 

“Supreme Chancellor,” he corrected thinly. 

“I would prefer it if you didn’t tell Palpatine a thing about either one of us.” Leia didn’t flinch back when he studied her. Anakin’s careful appraisal was very different than Luke’s wide-eyed curiosity.

“Are you supposed to be above the law?” 

“Is Palpatine?” Leia challenged. She kept her back straight and made sure that her stance was firm. She wouldn’t back down. He wouldn’t be the first person she debated that hid anger beneath calmness. “The chancellor certainly has quite a few powers that were never meant to remain at one person’s discretion. Why should he have the ability to command the Jedi?” 

Anakin shook his head slightly. “Chancellor Palpatine is going to step down when the wars are over. He’ll make sure to cede the wartime powers before he does. He’s tired of the war and wants to spend less of his time on politics.” 

“He won’t.” Leia dropped all pretenses and stopped hiding her emotions. Deception would never convince Anakin if he trusted Palpatine’s counsel more than the Jedi. “My cousin and I are from the future. If I’m correct, we’re from about two decades into the future. Palpatine never stepped down and never gave up wartime powers. He named himself the Emperor and my parents died believing he had to be stopped.”

His stoic expression faltered for just a moment before his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “No. No, he wouldn’t.” 

“He did. I am from the future.” She bit out the words as if the translator was standing at the very rear of an audience. “Luke is all that is left of the Jedi and you said yourself he’s hardly an imposing figure. Palpatine wants to destroy the Jedi and setting you against the rest of them makes a convenient wedge.” 

She felt the cold rush of his anger welling before his mouth moved. She thought that he said ‘you lie,’ but she couldn’t hear his voice. She could only hear a respirator and feel the edges of her awareness burning. 

Her father had never liked it when her mother watched the Hero With No Fear holos. His face would pinch and he would walk out of the room and politely change the subject if Leia tried to ask him any questions about Anakin Skywalker. On rare occasion, he would tell her something about Yoda or Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he had never said a word about Anakin.

“You’re him,” Leia said. Her lips were numb and shaping words took more instinct than skill. “Palpatine makes himself emperor with your help. You were his attack dog while he ripped the galaxy apart.” Anakin Skywalker warped into the towering figure that stood there while Alderaan died. She had heard old stories that the Dark Side corrupted and polluted all those that it touched but Vader was half a foot taller and could barely breathe. 

“Palpatine? Ms. Whitesun, you must be confused.” 

Her temper had done nothing on the Death Star. She had protected Artoo’s escape as best she could and she had tried to hide her fear. She had tried to make her peace with being executed on an Imperial ship and then Luke was the one to save her. 

She’d already said too much. Luke was cut away from her and she wasn’t sure if drawing her blaster would do any good. Unless he attacked first, Leia would strike with words. “He’s a Sith. Both of you are. It doesn’t matter how clever you think your master is, there will be people that see his reign end whether or not I’m alive to see it.”

Anakin’s jaw clenched but there was no other external sign of his irritation. Even the burning-hot anger had decreased down to a faint simmer of resentment. “I am no Sith.” 

“Not yet.” Leia had survived death too many times to care that she should wait for backup. She thought that she’d die on the _Tantive IV_. She thought she would die on the Death Star. She felt like she should have died when Alderaan became a memory. “My father didn’t like to talk about where Darth Vader came from but all of the signs are there. I just don’t know what you think you’ll gain. You don’t seem all that interested in power or wealth.” His wavy hair was not much more ostentatious than any number of Jedi in the corridors. His robes didn’t seem out of place. The glove on one hand concealed a prosthetic when he could have opted for something worthy of showing off. “Maybe it’s the competition. You spent enough years killing any Jedi that escaped the first rounds.” 

Anakin glared at her but his voice remained level. “I would never.” 

“I felt your Force presence,” Leia returned. She could feign calm too. She still could feel the beginnings of the cold fire if she stretched. “When I insulted Palpatine, you were angry. I don’t know what you want but I hardly think that Palpatine will be the one that helps you.” 

“You know nothing. The Council should examine you for head trauma.” 

“Maybe you did get what you wanted, though.” Leia didn’t think it was power or wealth or fame. He had enough of those. He was a brilliant pilot and a member of the Jedi Council and famous across the galaxy. If Luke hadn’t been an accident, though… “I would hope that you wanted the mother of your child to live but things do happen so quickly.” 

Anakin flinched backward from her. His placidly expressionless mask vanished. “There’s no one.” Sudden panic spiked at her through the Force and colored his words with fear. “I’m not attached.” 

“Liar.” 

“You don’t know anything. You must have confused me with someone else.” For the first time, he took a step back.

“I’m from your future. I’ve met your child,” Leia continued relentlessly as she stepped closer. “I know your child and he deserves better than a nightmare for a father. He doesn’t know his own mother’s name.” 

Anakin shook his head. “You’re wrong. You might believe you’re telling the truth, but you can’t be right.” 

“Then read my mind,” Leia challenged. It was a terrible idea but something in her felt calm. Even if he had been Vader, she thought this Anakin still had time to change his mind. 

“Surely someone of more skill—”

“You didn’t worry about skill last time. Read my mind,” she repeated coldly. “Careful, though, or you might see someone you recognize. The only living Jedi of my time was Obi-Wan Kenobi and you killed him too.” 

Leia felt his decision even before he bit out ‘fine.’ The hot fire of anger spread out through his whole body before he turned that burning focus on her. 

She stood firm. The Temple itself seemed to ground her, at first, because the screams echoing through the Force didn’t call out to her. They seemed to be screaming defiance at the man who killed them. Leia shoved the memories forward as if she could knock him from his feet. All the whispered rumors and reports about Vader’s latest strike. Vader appeared on her ship like a malevolent spirit. Vader had torn her accidental shielding apart in his attempts at questioning her and each time had hurt more. Alderaan vanished and a field of rubble appeared. Ben Kenobi was fearless and calm. Through all of it, Leia remembered how Vader’s anger had burned like ice, and wavered on her feet when Anakin’s mind was gone. 

The sensation of ice so cold it burned was gone. As Luke wrapped an arm around her back to steady her, Leia could see a dark brown robe whipping behind someone running from her at top speed. 

Luke caught her with an arm around her back and guided her back into a seat. Leia looked at several Jedi peering into the small antechamber and felt relieved when Obi-Wan Kenobi was willing to meet her gaze. 

“I don’t know if that was right,” Leia admitted quietly. With Anakin gone, suddenly she felt far less justified in holding him accountable for things that he hadn’t done yet. With a little more distance and without the threat of Palpatine finding her in Coruscant, she wondered if she could have convinced him more kindly.

“What happened, Ms. Whitesun?” Obi-Wan asked. 

The other Jedi behind him were so surprised that she could see signs of the emotion. Leia supposed they didn’t spend all that much time near very angry women that had just bullied someone into seeing memories of himself as a Sith Lord. 

She could not think of a lie that would explain what she had said. Only the truth was strange enough. “I’m from the future. I have memories that were important for Skywalker to see.”

“Disturbed him greatly, you have.” 

Leia nearly giggled with the shock of it all. Vader had been Luke’s father all along. Luke had destroyed the battle station and the explosion might have killed his father. Yoda actually sounded precisely like her father’s impression. She pulled herself together with the weight of Luke’s hand on her shoulder. 

She straightened and met the gaze of several Councilors in turn. Luke stayed at her left side bristling with protectiveness. She already felt strong enough to send Luke off again and trust her intuition. “I think that Luke needs to talk to Knight Skywalker as soon as possible. I gave him a shock. Luke can give him hope.” 

Obi-Wan nodded. She couldn’t read his expression but he didn’t seem angry. “I will stay with Ms. Whitesun. Yoda?” 

“Murky enough the future was without time traveling.” Yoda’s expression so perfectly between amused and offended she couldn’t decide which he felt. He looked to several other Jedi before speaking again. All of them made rather subtle signs that mostly looked offended. “Go to him you shall, Luke Whitesun. Lead you I will.” 

Leia didn’t want to tell the entire Jedi Council what Anakin’s future had been. If she could change the future for him, she didn’t want the entire Temple dismissing him as a lost cause. Being treated as a Sith might make him worse. Maybe she would have told Luke, if they’d been alone, but he’d always done well with improvisation.


	3. That Mask You Use

Luke had thought that seeing the past would be easier than leading raids on Imperial supply depots and trying to explain to the Rebellion’s leaders that they knew more about the Jedi than he did. He really should have known better. Leaving Leia behind with relative strangers felt like he was stretching part of himself almost to the breaking point. His only comfort was that the younger version of Old Ben was looking after her.

“Speak later we will,” Yoda had told Luke when they waited for a turbolift. “Gather your thoughts you must.” 

That didn’t leave him feeling any better about what he was supposed to do. Luke barely knew anything about his father. He still didn’t know what memories Leia had shared. Maybe she’d explained that Darth Vader killed him. Maybe Leia knew something about his mother. 

When he had walked with Obi-Wan, Luke had been thrilled to learn all about the Jedi Temple and the people that lived there. Even talking about the different levels in the complex had told him entirely new things about the Force. There were some Jedi that dedicated their lives to healing. If there still were thousands of Jedi, Luke might have had a choice, too. As it was the entire Rebellion seemed to expect that Luke would personally deal with Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine as soon as he got his act together.

They passed several Jedi. Nearly all of them looked Luke over far more closely than they had earlier. He wasn’t sure if it was Yoda’s company or the feeling that something in the Force had been even more disrupted. When Luke tried to reach out his senses and feel it, his mind ached before he could try to feel if the sensation was more like ripples or tremors. Usually following Ben’s brief teachings left Luke frustrated and feeling like he was just a fraction away from understanding. Here in the Temple it was like stepping out into bright sun after spending an entire rest cycle underground. The Force felt too bright in his senses to make out details. 

The rhythm of Yoda’s short walking stick stopped. The tiny Jedi rapped the stick against a door loud enough that the entire corridor must hear the knocking. 

The door slid open seconds later. Anakin Skywalker looked at Luke only for a moment before focusing on Yoda. 

“A visitor you have,” Yoda said mildly. Luke wasn’t fooled by the tone and doubted that his father was. That polite statement was a command. “Walk him back you will when finished speaking you have.” 

“Of course, master,” Anakin replied. 

His voice sounded a little hoarse, to Luke, but maybe most Jedi would think he sounded properly bored. At any rate, Yoda decided that was a proper answer and started back down the corridor. This time Luke didn’t take any comfort in the steady tempo of stick and shuffling steps. 

Neither of them spoke until Yoda had turned a corner. Anakin had stepped aside as if Luke actually was going to barge into his room. From the little that Luke could see, it was probably Anakin’s personal quarters. It probably should feel strange to think of his father by his first name but Luke was realizing he’d never known much at all about him. Luke also had never thought that the Jedi cared so little about boundaries. 

“If you would rather talk to me somewhere else, that’s fine,” Luke began. He wasn’t sure why Anakin was upset or what anyone thought he would do. He did know he would not invite himself into someone’s home. “If you’d rather not talk to me at all, that is also fine. I can remember the turns to get back.” 

“They would just insist that we should talk with the entire Council listening in.” 

Luke scowled. “Well. They can insist all they want but they don’t even exist where I’m from.” Luke’s self-righteous feeling of indignation died a sudden and embarrassing death at the way that Anakin’s expression flattened. Maybe he shouldn’t talk about the Council so soon after they had excluded Anakin from the meeting without even pretending to care about his opinion. Even without that, it was hardly polite to remind his father that most of his friends were dead in the future. “I mean, we could not talk and say we did,” Luke offered quickly. 

Luke couldn’t explain how, but he knew Anakin wasn’t just studying him with his eyes. Luke also thought that he might not be doing as terribly as he had guessed. 

“I think I’d rather talk to you,” Anakin said. “Come in, if you like.” 

“Thank you.” Luke immediately toed out of his boots at the threshold, pausing with one boot half-on at Anakin’s appraising look. “Habit,” Luke said sheepishly as he kicked his boot off fully. There was a small area just by the threshold that had seemed perfect for removing footgear. “I left Tatooine for the first time a few months ago.” 

The corner of Anakin’s mouth quirked up. “Sand,” he intoned quietly. 

“Sand,” Luke repeated with long-suppressed feeling. “I still have sand in my clothes chest. I leave sand when I take out an X-wing. My friend is still constantly mocking that he knows when I’ve been around because he has sand in the kriffing onboard filter after. Leia—well.” His funny anecdote about how Leia had been so surprised that sand could drive Luke to swearing like any other pilot wasn’t nearly as funny when Anakin thought she was his cousin. 

“I said she was my cousin. That was a lie,” Luke admitted bluntly. He really ought to have said that before he crossed Anakin’s threshold but delaying further wouldn’t help. “She was trying to get to Tatooine when she was captured. I don’t know why the Force dragged us both here so I used my aunt’s maiden name for both of us while we were figuring that out.” 

The openness was gone. Anakin’s expressions were closed in, again, just as his presence in the Force seemed to be smaller. “She said that she only met you after her parents died.” 

Sometimes Luke forgot just how many people she had lost. An entire planet was gone and so was her entire family. “She was looking for Ben Kenobi—well, Obi-Wan, I guess. I ended up rescuing her and losing Obi-Wan.” 

Luke should have known to watch his mouth. There was something about the future that had left Anakin bolting away from Leia. It seemed as if Luke had blundered straight into it again. This time, though, the response wasn’t just a stoic expression or withdrawing further from whatever Luke might be able to offer. This time Anakin had staggered back and looked as if he was having a panic attack and only standing upright through sheer stubbornness. Maybe it would have been easier if he knew what subjects to avoid, Luke thought, making sure he was well out of arm’s reach. Anakin’s breath had hitched when Luke said ‘Obi-Wan’ the first time. Repeating the name might have made it worse.

The door was closed, at least, so no passing Jedi would gawk at Anakin. Luke sat with his back against the door while he wondered what he should have said. If Anakin couldn’t find his way out of the panic, then Luke would help, but he already felt enough like an intruder sitting in the man’s quarters after lying and then saying something that caused harm.

He really should have made Leia tell him what he should say. At the very least he should have demanded Leia repeat what she had said. 

Luke wasn’t sure what had caused the anxiety or what he could say that might help. Instead he focused on breathing. The sparse resources the Rebellion had found from the Jedi had talked quite a bit about how to breathe properly while meditating. Just as Luke hoped, within a minute or two Anakin was breathing with him. 

“Maybe you should go,” Anakin said to the floor some time later. “It isn’t safe.” 

That wasn’t how to politely tell someone to go away when using Basic. That wasn’t even the rude way to send visitors away. “Not safe for you or for me?” Luke asked. “Whatever Leia said to you… I don’t know what she said or why she said it. I can’t apologize for her actions.” 

“Her actions are not the problem here.” Anakin’s voice was rougher. He sounded like an outsider caught out in a sandstorm with no one to help him. 

“If it helps, Leia said that she gave you a shock and that I should give you hope,” he said carefully. He felt like he was walking a trail after the markers had blown away. “She didn’t explain what that’s supposed to mean. All I know is that she showed you some of her memories of the future.” 

“I know how her future intersects with mine. I don’t know why the Force sent you both.” Anakin frowned before meeting Luke’s eyes again. “Why did you leave Tatooine?” 

“Obi-Wan had already convinced me to help Leia but I said I had to say goodbye to my aunt and uncle.” The image was as vivid as it has always been. Time hadn’t blurring any of the shock of finding his family murdered. Practice had let him talk about their deaths simply. “Someone had already killed them.” 

“Hutts?” 

Luke didn’t understand Anakin’s tone. Anakin sounded almost like he was telling a joke. “No. Why do you ask?” 

Anakin grimaced. Someone else might have thought it was a smirk. “They’re a typical threat. Otherwise I suppose Darth Vader killed them.” 

There was always some terribly morbid punchline that spread through the trading stations like a fever before vanishing again. The last time Luke had made it to Tosche Station, all anyone had to do was say ‘as the Hutt told my father’ for everyone in earshot to snicker. All the station made him remember was all the times he hadn’t appreciated Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. “No. Stormtroopers. I suppose that it might have been on Darth Vader’s orders.”

“Darth Vader.” Anakin’s lips thinned. “That’s why you should leave. You ought to check on Leia. There’s no need to worry about me.” 

Luke pushed himself up to his feet. His father had a glove on one hand. The fist inside of the leather glove was creaking. “You’ve heard that name before,” Luke said quietly. This time, he knew, he was pushing at something even more dangerous than anxiety. “You should… I mean. You’ll do the right thing. Everyone on Tatooine knew that you were amazing.” 

Anakin shook his head. “You need to leave.” 

“I think we can change your future,” Luke persisted. “Not mine, maybe, but yours. This time you can win against Darth Vader.” 

Anakin’s eyes flared yellow. “I _am_ Vader!” 

“No, you’re not. You’re my father!” Luke yelled back. 

When all that drew was a very confused glance, Luke reminded himself that he hadn’t been honest. “My aunt and uncle were Beru and Owen Lars. I always knew that Anakin Skywalker was my father and I never knew why I couldn’t tell anyone.” 

His father’s eyes were blue again. The strange yellow had vanished the moment Luke claimed him as a father. Anakin was staring at Luke as if he had never seen him before. 

“I thought we were having a girl,” Anakin said finally. 

Luke shrugged. “Maybe it’s a parallel universe? I mean, from what I understand, I can’t change my own time. Anything Leia and I say won’t change the part where Darth Vader hurt her. For all I know you are going to have a daughter here. I don’t know even when we are compared to where I came from.” 

“What year are you from?” 

Luke’s instinctive response was useless. It was no good knowing it was the nineteenth year of the Empire when the Empire hadn’t started yet. “I’m nineteen and the Empire was formed the day that I was born. Most of our years are based on that. In Galactic Republic Years, though, it’s 25054.” 

Anakin reached toward Luke’s boots. Both moved from the floor to hover just in front of Luke’s waist. “Leia was right,” Anakin said evenly. “We need to talk to the Council immediately. It’s Galactic Republic Year 25035 and you’re due to be born soon.” 

“Just—one question,” Luke said. He hesitantly grabbed one of the boots. It felt heavier again after a moment, as if it had been dropped into his hand, but the other boot didn’t move an inch. “I don’t know mom’s name. People always had a little to say about you but it’s like nobody thought she was important.” 

Anakin’s glare wasn’t nearly as intimidating while his eyes were blue. “Her name is Padmé Amidala. She is wonderful and beautiful—she’s important. The most important.” 

If nothing else, his mother’s name was beautiful. That was more than Luke had ever known. “Thank you. Back to the Council, then?” 

“Later…” Anakin’s voice trailed off. The boot was as steady as ever when Luke took hold. 

“We can talk later. Or we can pretend we never talked, if you want,” Luke said easily while jamming his feet back into his boots. 

Anakin nodded once in response before gesturing toward his door. It opened at once. Luke didn’t regret not seeing much more of his father’s rooms when the doors had closed behind them. He doubted there would be much worth seeing where any of the Jedi might go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Titles for the first three chapters taken from Elton John's wonderful song "I'm Still Standing." If you ever want to hear Obi-Wan singing Elton John's beautiful "Your Song," do yourself a favor and find the Moulin Rouge version._


	4. False and Foolish Visions

Anakin led the way back to the Council. Luke, following in his wake, was starting to understand why so many Jedi wore cloaks. The cloak looked much more impressive at a high clip than a pilot jumpsuit, however practical the jumpsuits were. Maybe he could convince the Rebel quartermaster that all Jedi needed flowing cloaks that snapped with each stride. 

As they walked, though, Luke couldn’t help but fill in the rest of the story. Anakin had become Darth Vader. Luke’s own father had hurt Leia. Even a junk planet on the edge of the Outer Rim had plenty of rumors to go around about the Emperor’s chief enforcer. In another generation no one but the most dedicated pod-racing fans would remember the only human to win the Boonta Eve classic. 

He didn’t say anything else to his father. Luke wasn’t sure what he should say. 

Leia was still in the small chamber near the council room. She was sipping tea from a brown mug while talking quietly with Obi-Wan. She looked more at peace than she had in weeks.

Luke held his breath when Leia looked past him to his father. Anakin spoke first.

“We should speak with the Council soon.” Anakin tugged at his glove with his left hand for a moment before bowing his head. “Ms. Whitesun’s concerns are completely justified. The future she fears would have begun very soon.”

Leia set her mug down carefully. The tiny click of ceramic against the wood of the table seemed very loud in the silence of the antechamber. “I understand it must have been a shock.” Leia waited until Anakin met her eyes. “My galaxy won’t change but I think that yours can. I think we’ve learned enough to make sure my people know the truth.” 

Anakin didn’t look away. “If we have the time, Ms. Whitesun, I might be able to answer some questions for you.” 

“That alone answers some of them,” Leia replied with a nod. “The Council decided to save time and invite all of us in at once this time. I think they want to hear from me about the Empire and how it happened.” 

“The Council is also quite curious about what happened earlier,” Obi-Wan said mildly. Luke wouldn’t have been suspicious about the bland tone if Anakin hadn’t straightened. “Perhaps the shock of so much future knowledge would have harmed any Jedi caught in the backlash.” 

Leia nodded slowly. Her expression was just as overly polite as Obi-Wan’s. Luke never saw her act so formally outside of briefings. “I imagine Luke is just as qualified as most beings in the Temple. He’s more used to dealing with the aftermath of such strong emotions.” 

“If the Force’s ways were transparent we wouldn’t need a Council, in any case,” Obi-Wan agreed. He offered Leia his arm, adding a flourish Luke would never be able to copy, and straightened his robes while she adjusted the fall of her dress. “Speaking of the Council, they have been waiting for us.” 

The door opened just a moment later. Obi-Wan led the way in, with Anakin just after him. Luke stayed close to Leia.

Luke focused on trying to keep his weight centered. When he had stood in the center of the Council’s circular room, he had shifted from foot to foot like a kid getting told off, and the Council members had mostly talked to each other. If Obi-Wan hadn’t stood at his side, Luke might have been tempted to melt into the floor out of embarrassment. He had admitted that Obi-Wan had trained him, briefly, but it seemed that some time with a training droid wasn’t very impressive to Jedi Masters. The entire Council might have talked about alternate universes and diverting paths for hours if Luke hadn’t felt Leia getting angry. 

Obi-Wan didn’t stand in the center of the circle this time. He moved to one of the human-sized chairs, still holding his mug in his hand, and gestured Anakin to an empty seat.

Luke felt out of place surrounded by Jedi masters present in person and by hologram. Leia, however, looked just as calm as she had in any Rebellion meeting. 

“Greetings, Jedi Masters,” Leia said politely. She faced toward Yoda when she bowed. “My understanding of the protocol is only a formality. I think I might understand why my friend and I have traveled back in time.” 

“Your friend,” Master Windu repeated slowly. “Not cousin?” 

“My friend,” Leia confirmed. She didn’t look at all apologetic for the deception. “Until the Sith Lord is defeated, however, I think it would be unwise to disclose our surnames. My parents were very involved in the battle against the Sith Lord that made the Republic into his empire.” 

“Serious accusations you make, Madam Whitesun. Proof you have?” Yoda asked. 

“From what Master Kenobi told me, your healers might have some proof,” Leia replied calmly. “I am part of a rebellion that fights to restore democracy to the galaxy. The Sith Lord’s apprentice used the Force among other attempts to take information from me.”

Several of the Jedi turned in their seats to look toward Master Windu when he leaned forward. Windu tilted his head as he studied her. “You’re Force-sensitive but I wouldn’t expect that to keep you safe from a Sith. Training?” 

“I’m involved in an organization that works against the Sith Lord and his Empire. At my level of participation, training to resist interrogation was necessary.” Leia met Windu’s eyes and didn’t appear to notice the other Jedi staring at her with open curiosity. 

“Our mind-healers would thank you for the privilege of treating you, Madam Whitesun. They may require the practice.” 

“Thank you, Master Windu. I would be honored to accept.” 

Luke glanced at the Jedi he could see. Spinning in a circle to see all of them would probably be entirely undignified but he didn’t have Leia’s poise in leaving people at his back. This was just as bad as some of the formal Rebellion meetings. They would spend several minutes at a time talking politely about pleasant and unimportant topics when he was used to curt meetings that only discussed the important details. From what Anakin had said, there was something important to talk about, and talk about healing seemed like it could have been handled privately.

“Better you seem, Anakin,” Yoda interjected before Luke decided whether to say anything. “Went well the talk did?” 

“Very well, masters,” Anakin agreed. He tried for polite, Luke thought, but maybe his father had just as little patience as Luke for excessive formalities. “Unfortunately the news from the talk is far more dangerous. Both of our guests come from a future where the Republic fell to a Sith Lord. This happened very close to our present time.” 

“How close?” Windu asked. 

Anakin hesitated. 

“My birthday,” Luke said quietly. He pretended that he couldn’t feel scrutiny coming at him from every direction and dismissed the instinct to take a more defensible position. “I was born in Galactic Republic Year 25035. The Republic fell the day I was born. Like I said earlier, Master Kenobi is the only Jedi I’ve met before. He trained me a little before he died.”

“From what Madam Whitesun has told me, I was killed by the same Sith that murdered Anakin,” Obi-Wan Kenobi said. Nearly every member of the Council turned to Kenobi to protest. Luke did his best to mimic Leia’s serenity and not draw attention to how Anakin’s jaw had dropped in utter shock. 

Luke had nearly a full minute to attempt copying Leia’s composure, as it happened, because nearly all of the Council was talking over each other in an attempt to demand further information about a Sith or to suggest that their guest was mistaken. Luke had a different struggle. He didn’t blame this version of his father for what Darth Vader had done. Why should he blame Obi-Wan for repeating Ben’s lie? Both Ben and Obi-Wan might even argue that they were telling enough of the truth that they weren’t lying.

Windu brought them back to order. “Whitesuns. What can you tell us about this Sith?” 

“Darth Vader is the apprentice of Darth Sidious,” Leia replied immediately. “Darth Sidious has multiple protections in place and he’s hardly hiding in the shadows. He operates from Coruscant and can override every clone with a single order. There is inhibitor chip in every clone in the Grand Army of the Republic.” 

“Can you give us any more details?” Obi-Wan asked over the renewed murmurs of side conversations. 

“I only know a little,” Leia cautioned. Even when admitting that she didn’t know the full story, she still looked as confident as someone that knew the whole story. “Most of the records were lost and my father didn’t tell me the full story. I do know that clones nearly killed General Kenobi. My father was forced to rescue him from Utapau after all his troopers turned on him.” 

Luke wasn’t sure whether Utapau was a planet or a person. By the reaction within the room, though, Utapau was important. 

“All of the troopers?” Windu asked urgently. 

“I can only think of a handful that resisted, Master Windu. All of them had removed the inhibitor chip,” Leia replied. 

“Fits my vision this does,” Yoda said sharply before the conversation could derail again. “The work of Dooku this was. Aware the Sith Lord must be.” 

For the first time, Luke thought that he might know something the Jedi Masters did not. “If they’re anything like the inhibitor chips that the Empire used on Kashyyyk, my friend and I have been trying to come up with ways to get around them,” he said. “The Wookiees are on one planet with all of the chips controlled by one field. We’ve been talking about ways to disable it.” 

“The clones are all across the galaxy. A single field wouldn’t work to control all of them.” Anakin’s voice cut through the chatter and left silence in its wake. “The clones have a central communications relay that handles all priority orders. It works pretty well but there are standby protocols if the relay is interrupted.” 

“Communications relays always have glitches and nobody wants to report those straightaway.” Luke would leave diplomacy and Galactic history to Leia. Disrupting the big boss’s day and coming out with no evidence to tie you to the missing group of slaves was a Tatooine tradition. “If you time it right, the technicians will still be trying to figure out a software issue and not realize that you borrowed a few components of the broadcasting hardware.” 

Obi-Wan nodded approvingly. “Using a multi-pronged approach would be wisest, I believe. Preventing the Sith Lord from giving the order would be ideal. If that fails, confronting the Sith in an area where signal transmits poorly would be helpful, with a backup of having no way for the order to reach the clone troopers.” 

“That will minimize danger to the Jedi and the Army. I think that might be the best we can do if we want to maintain element of surprise.” Windu looked to the other Jedi Masters for further comments before turning to Leia. “You’re being rather cautious with our Sith Lord’s name, Whitesun.” 

“You’ll need proof he was the Sith Lord,” she said. “From what my father said, the Jedi Order’s reputation had been savaged thoroughly before the fall of the Empire. There were people saying the Jedi had to be controlled and the Sith Lord has been feeding all of those rumors.” 

“Understood. I imagine you wouldn’t be telling us so many details if the danger came from someone in this room.” 

Nearly everyone was watching the byplay between Leia and Master Windu. Luke thought that Obi-Wan was the only other person that noticed Anakin’s flinch. 

“If someone in this room would be a danger to the Republic, I would have asked Master Kenobi to make some pretense for excluding them.” Leia waited through the approving murmur as the Council realized that no one had been excluded. “Sheev Palpatine is the Sith Lord. He’s been manipulating the conflict with the Separatists from the start and using the specter of war to gain more and more power for himself.” 

Luke realized that the Jedi had been rather restrained earlier as they interrupted each other and mostly ignored Luke. This time, Jedi had leapt to their feet and were having very loud arguments about how they would have foreseen that if it was true. Even the Jedi present through hologram were looking for someone to argue with. 

“I think that went well, actually.” Leia’s voice was quiet enough that Luke could barely hear her through the many louder voices. “I wasn’t sure if I would remember enough. My father never liked talking about the fall of the Republic.” 

“My aunt and uncle barely said anything about it. They just said my dad was a pilot and that my mom…” Luke shook his head at the memories of trying to trick his aunt and uncle into saying more about his mother. Darth Vader was his father. It might be for the best that they made sure he couldn’t search for his mother’s name. “Well, they said she was beautiful and they met her once, but that’s not as important. She died on Empire Day, the day I was born.” 

“My mother did, too.” Leia half-smiled at Luke’s double take. “I’m adopted. I was adopted, at least, but saying it after my parents died felt like I wasn’t claiming them as the people who raised me. I only ever saw my mother in dreams.” 

“I only learned my mother’s name today.” Luke kept his voice quiet and tried to ignore the arguments around him. Looking for anyone that was paying attention to them would only increase the chances that someone else started listening. “Her name is Padmé Amidala.” 

“The senator!” Leia’s reply was quiet but no less excited. “She was one of the Republic senators that opposed Palpatine most frequently. It’s hard to read about the people that fought against the rise of the Empire, now, but I know both of my birth parents fought to keep the Republic. My father knew them.” 

“Maybe things will be different enough that your parents will be safe this time.” 

“Maybe,” Leia agreed. “I hope so, at least. I don’t know if changing things will make it even more dangerous for them. Senator Amidala was important, though, important enough that Palpatine couldn’t erase everything about her. He just said that the Jedi killed her.” 

Luke wanted to know everything but the Jedi were starting to settle down. Windu and Yoda called the Council back to order. Luke could hardly keep track of the details of the plan as the Council swiftly grouped suggestions together to best take out Palpatine. The Jedi wouldn’t know to change one part of Palpatine’s rise or wouldn’t dare ask. All of the Jedi masters agreed that Luke and Leia would stay well away from the main fighting in protective custody. Leia was following the plan closely, nodding approvingly several times, so Luke waited for his moment.

He didn’t think that he would be able to change his future. Luke was pretty sure he could do more for his father than warn him about what happened if he followed Palpatine. 

Luke tried to count his breathing instead of worrying that the Jedi might finish their meeting before he could ask. Finally, Master Windu asked if there were any other concerns and Luke was the first one ready to speak. 

“Would it be possible to protect my mother?” he asked. Predictably, the entire Order of people that didn’t seem fond of attachment looked surprised. Luke stood his ground. He ignored everyone else’s shocked expression and kept looking straight at Master Windu. “I’m not sure what happened to her, originally, but I know she stood against Palpatine. Later he claimed that the Jedi killed her.” 

Windu frowned. “Possibly. Who is she?” 

Luke felt like he was right. Nothing in the Force or the Council’s expectant silence told him to be cautious. “Padmé Amidala.” 

“The Council has protected Senator Amidala before,” Obi-Wan said into the quiet. When Luke glanced at him, Obi-Wan was stroking his beard in thought. “I did not know that she was pregnant but I am sure we all know she has stood up to Palpatine when others would not. If it please the Council, I would be honored to invite her to a meeting in the Temple.” 

“Wise this may be,” Yoda agreed. “Stay in the guest quarters she can.” 

For a long moment, it seemed that Master Windu would disagree, but he finally nodded. “It seems that the Temple healers will have all kinds of new challenges today. Obi-Wan, please tell the healers that we have someone that made mental contact with a Sith and somebody that’s expecting a baby.” 

“Call upon you if there are further questions we will,” Yoda said. “Dismissed the Whitesuns are.” 

Anakin stood. “I can show them to the guest quarters, masters.” 

Windu studied Anakin for several seconds. “Do that, Skywalker, then head back here if you’ll be involved. You know enough about electronics and the Chancellor to make yourself very useful.” 

Luke was smiling because the Council had agreed to protect his mother. He certainly wasn’t smiling because his father looked so surprised and happy to be included. He mimicked Leia when she made a formal goodbye and followed his father out of the council chamber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you to[Kayasurin](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayasurin/pseuds/Kayasurin/) and [TheDoktor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoktor/pseuds/TheDoktor) for making this chapter far better than it was. All the feedback has helped, too, and a kudos at just the right time can be enough encouragement to keep working on this to make sure it keeps moving toward the ending._


	5. Heart Like Water

The guest quarters were surprisingly well-appointed for an order that prized simplicity. The suite of rooms had three bedrooms, a kitchenette, and a large refresher unit organized around an airy seating area. The courtyard beyond the wide windows looked masterfully tended with trees arranged precisely to not block sunlight. The beige chair Leia had claimed was plush and vastly more comfortable than shipboard accommodations. She should peruse the basket of fresh fruit on the seating area’s low central table. She should sink into the lovely chair and put her feet up. Even after being surrounded by Jedi Masters, however, Leia could not bring herself to relax with only one member of the Jedi Council present.

For his part, Anakin Skywalker didn’t look much like Darth Vader. Without the sudden burning anger she’d sensed earlier, she was back to feeling the Force as an ephemeral something she could never quite understand. Unlike most of the Jedi, it seemed, Leia didn’t need the Force to decipher emotions. She tried to read the nuance of voice cues and body language. She had learned to be on her guard when voice and body didn’t match. It seemed to her that the Order was full of highly emotional Jedi on all sides even as they decided certain emotions or the emotions of certain beings would cause more trouble. To Leia’s eyes, it was clear that Anakin wasn’t sure whether he should look her way, and that Luke was starting to shift in his seat while he tried to think of a way to defuse the situation. 

For Luke’s sake, Leia drew on her reserves of composure and decided to trust her friend’s judgment. “My name is Leia Organa. Even if Palpatine wins a battle today, there are other people that will fight with the Jedi. Bail Organa will help you.” 

Anakin shook his head as he struggled for words. “Why would you tell me that? In your future…” 

“In my future, you didn’t know what would happen. Now you do.” If Leia had needed room in her mind to prove that Anakin was not Darth Vader, and might never be, seeing Anakin duck his head to try hiding a smile helped. That shy smile let her believe this man’s life could be different. Even better, she could finally believe that she was talking to Luke’s father, and she could let herself smile back. 

Luke was smiling, too, and relaxing back into his seat. She wouldn’t ask whether he’d been ready to defend her or his father. Knowing Luke, he had been on edge waiting to defend both of them. 

She could cede control in the conversation. She could sit back and wait for Luke to start a discussion about something far less risky. Leia decided to try her luck instead. “Are you worried that Senator Amidala’s usual doctor will not keep her care private? If you do trust the doctor, Senator Amidala might prefer that provider over a Jedi not used to birthing babies.” 

Anakin’s shy pleasure faded into polite bemusement. “Padmé hasn’t seen a doctor in a long time.”

Leia bit back her immediate reaction. She reminded herself that she couldn’t apply Alderaan’s expectations to other societies. From what she knew of Naboo culture, however, this was unusual. Luke looked surprised, too, so Leia pressed on. “May I ask why?” 

“She wanted to get home to Naboo, first, but she’s concerned what her allies in the Senate would do if she didn’t keep reminding them to stand together.” Anakin looked like he wanted to say more. When neither Luke nor Leia interrupted him, he did. “I’m worried about her. I keep dreaming that she dies in childbirth but she said it’s only a dream.” 

“Is the dream the same every time?” Luke asked. 

“It’s vague,” Anakin said quietly. He was looking away, again, but this time Leia knew he wasn’t hiding a smile. If Leia’s hypothesis about the dip in his shoulders was right, he was waiting for someone to tell him that a Jedi’s dream could not be prophetic. “I just know that she dies and I should have helped her.” 

Leia didn’t see why that kept her from having a doctor on Coruscant. She was still trying to think of a polite string of words asking why they hadn’t found a healer before when she noticed that Luke was looking slightly past both of them. She waited. When Luke was starting to contemplate things that no one else could see, he was either daydreaming or about to leave the Rebellion's intelligence department scrambling in his wake. 

“Is it the scanners?” Luke asked. “Why you haven’t gone to a doctor, I mean.” 

Leia frowned. Anakin nodded curtly. 

“My aunt and uncle warned me I had to stay out of town on days when the Imps came through with the scanner,” Luke said with sympathy. “Er- Imperials, that is. Uncle Owen said that in the core worlds they’d scan all of the newborns,” Luke said. He fidgeted with the strap of his bag. “I guess they did miss me the first time around.”

“The scanners?” Leia prompted gently. Luke’s voice had quieted from old pain and Anakin was still distracted by current worries. 

“Midichlorian scanning,” Anakin said flatly. Leia suspected that most of the Order would approve of his apparent apathy. They might realize what the rigid posture and slight downturn of the lips were hiding. She also was starting to wonder just how many signs they had missed in a young man that trusted Palpatine more than the Jedi. “Most planets in the Republic scan pregnant women to find out if they’re bearing a Force-sensitive child. It gives the Jedi time to discuss taking custody of the child before birth.” 

Leia could imagine all of the questions no one had asked him before. She could imagine the questions no one had asked a lady Senator. “Asking a doctor to not scan for midichlorians or to not report a result might leave them very curious.” 

Anakin jerked his head in something like a nod. “Padmé said that the Order won’t raise any child of ours. While she’s still pregnant, though, she doesn’t want the galaxy gossiping about why a Senator who supports the Jedi is keeping her child out of the Order.”

Leia could feel the furrow between her brows worsen. She didn't know when she had started scowling deeply enough her deportment tutor would have scolded her about premature wrinkles. “It might be especially tricky if someone realized a Jedi might be the father.” 

“That’s the other reason Padmé doesn’t want anyone to test our child,” Anakin said. The rigid posture had given way to slumped shoulders. “By Order custom, I shouldn’t refuse to have him raised as any other youngling.” 

“That’s an Order custom,” Luke agreed. He was much more at ease than Leia would be in his seat. She still couldn’t imagine what she would say to her parents if she dared to send them a message. Luke seemed completely confident talking about how he would be raised. “Padmé doesn’t want your child to grow up here. What do you want?” 

“I’m not sure.” Anakin glanced toward Leia and straightened when she met his gaze. “I never want to be that man you saw,” he began slowly. He let his blank mask of an expression fade as neither one of them interrupted. When he didn’t try to hide his emotions, he looked much more like the handsome young man from the holos. “I want to war to be over. I want to stop worrying Padmé and I want to stop worrying about her all the time. I want her to be okay.” 

“Stopping Palpatine should end the worst of the war,” Leia began carefully. She thought she could see Palpatine’s influence through what hadn’t happened yet and might not happen without Anakin's cooperation. “Even if Palpatine escaped, you saw what the Sith have to offer now.”

Anakin grimaced but didn’t object.

“Would it help if you left the Order?” Luke asked. “It’s just one possibility but you would be able to spend more time with my mother.” 

Anakin struggled with several replies before shaking his head. “I couldn’t leave the Order.” 

“What do you owe them?” Luke prompted after several seconds of fraught silence.

“There’s a prophecy. The Council believes that I’m the one that will restore balance to the Force and end the Sith.” Anakin ran his left hand through his hair roughly enough that his hand was caught in tangles. “Every time I doubted the prophecy, the rest of the Jedi Masters would insist it was fate. When I tried to embrace the prophecy, they said I was too arrogant.”

“That sounds immensely frustrating,” Leia said with muted feeling. She hated prophecies. Ranting about how much she disliked them would not help, however, and she wasn’t sure just when she would find herself back on the _Home One_. “Do you know the original prophecy, Knight Skywalker?” 

“Anakin, please. You’re my son’s—you’re Luke’s friend.” Anakin fidgeted with the glove covering his prosthetic, again, but didn’t seem to be uncomfortable with her question. “If the Council does know the full text of the prophecy, they’ve never told me. They just call me the Chosen One and say that I’m meant to bring balance to the Force.” 

“If they don’t know the prophecy, then how do they know what they want you to do?” Luke’s eyes were bright with indignation. “Vagueness is one thing but that’s not even enough of a reason to be vague. If you are the Chosen One who will bring balance to the Force, no matter what you do, then leaving the Order wouldn’t change the prophecy.” 

“I couldn’t just leave the Order,” Anakin retorted sharply. When Luke raised a brow rather than take offense at the tone, Anakin sighed. “They freed me.” 

“That doesn’t mean you owe them anything.” Luke tugged his carrysack onto his lap. He tipped the lightsaber and two bulky wrenches beside him before reaching into the lightened bag unzipping a side compartment. He drew a palm-sized device out of the zippered side compartment. Luke held the little machine as carefully as someone might hold a soap bubble. “I'm from Tatooine, too, and I've always known that a freed man that became a Jedi made the first version of a scanner that found transmitter chips. That might have been you.” 

Anakin’s scowl faded as he looked over the machine. The small rectangle of silver parts had two rows of raised lightbulbs and a switch as its most prominent features. “I tried to make a scanner. I had more luck with my pod racer.” 

“It's gone through a lot of revisions, but it has a ten-foot radius, now.” Luke tilted the device for Leia’s benefit after letting Anakin study the construction. 

Luke held the device toward his father. Anakin reached out a hand slightly and lifted the little machine into the air. He spun it around several times along different axes before letting the device land in his palm. 

Anakin moved his thumb along the switch. The first light in each row glowed white. 

“That top row is for active trackers,” Luke said, reaching across the distance to point. “We still have a few people trying to figure out how to scramble the signal, a little, in case someone tries to trigger the explosion before we can get the tracker out. Mostly we check how close we are to the tracker's boundary.The bottom row tracks when we’re getting closest to the tracker itself so we can plan surgery.” 

Anakin asked several specific questions about how the proximity relay worked, Leia thought, but she had no head for that kind of detail work. Even if she’d wanted to add something to the conversation, she was not done processing just how casually Luke and Anakin were talking about exploding slave trackers embedded in people.

“Padmé was upset, too,” Anakin told Leia as Luke put the device away. Luke had a padded sleeve that he kept the little machine in. The sturdy canvas was embroidered with pictographs that he didn’t turn her way. “It seems normal when it’s how you grow up.” 

“Aunt Beru pretended she didn't notice that my friends and I helped once in a while. It was getting harder, though, with the Imps backing up the Hutts.” Luke was far less careful about putting the rest of his tools away. 

“From the way that you keep your lightsaber in with your wrenches, I imagine Obi-Wan didn’t have much time for his usual speeches,” Anakin said. He unclipped his own lightsaber and held it next to Luke’s. “If mine was in that condition, right there, he would be lecturing me that a Jedi’s lightsaber is his life.” 

“We- um- didn’t talk much. He told me a little, though.” Luke studied the scratches and dents that Anakin’s ‘saber didn’t have yet. “I just thought Ben was a crazy hermit until Leia sent the droids with her message. Mostly he had me practice with a training droid while we were on the way to Alderaan.” 

“I'm sure Obi-Wan will be happy to tell you all about lightsaber philosophy if you have time.” Anakin clipped his ‘saber back in place and stood. “I don’t know how much he has told Padmé so far but they’re here.” 

The doors opened a moment later. Obi-Wan escorted a human woman in a hooded dark blue cloak through the doorway. From the hood down to the floor, the cloak was a riot of ruffles structured on a tiered design that Leia’s mother would have been able to describe perfectly. Leia thought that the embroidery past the ruffles might have a meaning but it didn't match traditional Alderaan styles. Even the beautiful tailoring and showy embellishments could not hide the lady’s markedly round abdomen. She drew back her hood and revealed a lovely face and elaborate hairstyle with three linked circles of braids. 

“Jedi Knight Skywalker,” the senator said politely. “Master Kenobi told me that my presence was requested for a diplomatic matter.”

Obi-Wan’s brow rose as he took in the silent group. “Senator Padmé Amidala, you know Knight Skywalker. Our other two guests are Luke and Leia Whitesun.” 

Anakin held his hand out to Luke. Luke stood slowly, coltishly, with his legs unstable beneath him. “They’re from the future, Padmé,” Anakin said. “Whitesun was a pseudonym. I’d like to introduce our son Luke Skywalker.” 

Padmé’s hand moved to rest on her belly. She gaped at both Luke and Anakin for several seconds before beaming. She rushed forward to throw her arms around both of them and the three together were a tangle of arms and bent heads. 

Obi-Wan was the first to notice that Leia hadn’t moved.

“Miss Whitesun?” 

Leia didn’t try to tear her gaze away from the family. From the moment that the woman had put her cloak aside, Leia had been staring at a familiar face. “My mother died in childbirth. I used to dream about her, though, so clearly it was like she could see me. She was always so beautiful and so sad.” 

Luke, Anakin, and Padmé all shifted enough to look at her. Leia only had eyes for her mother. The only pictures she had seen in studies of history showed Queen Amidala, the teenaged girl that saved Naboo, resplendent in full face-paint and elaborate outfits and hairstyles. Now that she could match Senator Amidala’s face to her dreams, she wondered if that had been intentional. She would have known her mother from just a glimpse otherwise.

Leia didn’t remember standing up. She also didn’t remember moving any closer. She still ended up in that circle of people, between her parents, feeling caught between tears and laughter. 

Obi-Wan had politely removed himself to the kitchenette to make tea. Leia realized this only when Obi-Wan cleared his throat and started to hand each of them a freshly brewed cup. “I do hate to interrupt a reunion, but the Council will be meeting shortly. If you are joining us, Anakin, this is the time.” 

Anakin squared his shoulders as he stepped back from them. “I think this is going to be the last thing I do as a Jedi, Obi-Wan. I’m already married to Padmé and I’m not convinced the temple is the best place for a child.” 

Kenobi looked the group over thoughtfully. “I expect that the Order will regret this loss dearly, Anakin. Perhaps it will be enough to reconsider whether we should take on younglings at later ages more often instead of less.” 

Padmé still had one arm looped around Luke’s back. She moved her other arm to Leia’s shoulders. “I would apologize if I felt I should,” Padmé said. “I want my children with me. It’s exciting enough to know that I live to have another pregnancy.” 

Leia’s breath caught. Her mother was practically glowing with happiness and was hugging her and Luke with surprising strength.

Luke recovered first. “You might want to tell the doctors that we need someone experienced,” he said calmly. “Leia and I were both born on Empire Day about nineteen years ago.” 

Leia had barely realized that she and Luke were siblings. Twins was something else entirely. She leaned forward to peer up at Luke’s face and couldn’t help smiling when he looked just as surprised and pleased as she felt.

“I thought there was no way one child could simultaneously head-butt me in the liver and kick me in the ribs,” Padmé said after a moment. She withdrew both arms from around her grown children to prod thoughtfully at her belly. “Twins would explain a few strange looks when I asked people about how human babies move. When and what is Empire Day?” 

“Empire Day is cancelled,” Anakin said. He stepped closer and bent to kiss Padmé’s hair. Padmé dodged that nimbly to kiss him full on the lips. 

“I think we’re done hiding.” Padmé blithely ignored everyone but her husband while she straightened his shirt. “I am going to stay here and get to know our children. I want you to come back to me after you save the galaxy.” 

“Perhaps you can get to know Leia. I was trying to figure out if we would have time to involve one of the clone troopers without risking someone. Luke's scanner might be the answer.” Anakin nodded approvingly when Luke grabbed his satchel. “I'll explain on the way, Obi-Wan.” 

Padmé caught Luke by the wrist before he left and drew him into another hug. “I hope we'll have time to catch up later. Be safe, Luke.” 

Leia didn't reach to hug Anakin. It had been different in the group, before, and enough of a shock that she hadn't thought of anything but finally finding her mother and realizing that she had another family. Luke caught her up in a hug, though, and Leia laughed when he lifted her clear off the ground. 

After Luke set her down, she looked up to find her father's eyes on her. It had been easier, thinking of Anakin as Luke's father, but Leia had thought her birth parents' identities had died with her parents and Alderaan. She knew who her parents were, now, and whatever had happened to them she knew she had a brother.

“I'll protect him,” Anakin promised. 

Leia met his gaze and felt brave. She was sure that this man would protect her brother and that this time's would-be emperor wouldn't know what had hit him. “I want both of you to come back in one piece. All three of you,” she amended, seeing Obi-Wan at the door. Obi-Wan smiled faintly at the inclusion but left no more time for Leia to agonize over goodbyes. Anakin and Luke followed him out into the hallway and they were gone. 

Padmé locked the door, checked over her blaster, and settled herself in one of the cushioned chairs with her datapad on her lap. “We'll know eventually,” Padmé said, patting the chair next to her and smiling when Leia gave up on pacing to sit down. “Obi-Wan sent me records for the Temple's healers. Help me choose the healer that just might deliver you soon.” 

Usually, Leia hated waiting for news. She would pace around the communications team and wish there was anything she could do for the Rebellion's pilots and soldiers as they faced danger without her. This might be the best time she ever spent waiting for someone else to save the day. For the first time since her birth, Leia was spending time with her mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _As always, corrections to mistakes with canon are welcome. I am working from the movies primarily and try to stay right with things characters said on-screen. I've appreciated the comments very much. I had an unexpected gap in time for writing but ended up with time to re-watch the original trilogy again and refine a few ideas. As usual,[Kayasurin](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayasurin/pseuds/Kayasurin/) and [TheDoktor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoktor/pseuds/TheDoktor) helped me figure out just where this story should go next while I work toward the endgame. ___


	6. Wrath Like Fire

From where Luke stood, alone in a viewing chamber high above the Senate floor, the three Jedi walking toward Chancellor Palpatine hardly looked like the galaxy's best chance at defeating a Sith Lord. Knowing that Obi-Wan was waiting in reserve somewhere didn't help Luke's nerves.

Obi-Wan had left for the Council meeting before Anakin and Luke had the beginnings of an idea. Just when they had the details of a workable plan in order, Palpatine had called Anakin. 

Luke hadn't heard most of the conversation. Anakin had bolted out of Obi-Wan's ship and answered the call in the shadows beyond the hangar. When the call with Palpatine was over, Anakin called Obi-Wan and the rest of the Council. Chancellor Palpatine wanted to meet with Anakin and had implied that no one else would be there. If the Jedi were ready, they might be able to surprise him. Luke wasn't sure if he was ready but he followed Anakin's directions to private viewing chamber with a view of the Senate floor. 

The microphones spread throughout the senate chambers picked up the faint echoes of footsteps as the three Jedi moved forward with Anakin in the lead. He stalked ahead of Mace Windu and Yoda, cloak flaring out into the space between them, while Windu kept pace with Yoda. 

“Anakin, my boy!” Palpatine smiled at his protege before looking past Anakin at the slower pair of Jedi. “Master Yoda. I had thought that you were needed on Kashyyyk.” 

“Follow the will of the Force, I do,” Yoda retorted sharply. He looked very small, ten human paces away from Palpatine, both hands resting on his walking stick. “Difficult it is, when obscured the Force becomes, but seen more clearly now I have.” 

Palpatine spread his arms, palm-up, a sign of bemusement visible even from Luke's high vantage point. “Perhaps you will enlighten me, Master Yoda. I hadn't realized two Jedi Masters would have so little to do they would intrude on a friendly meeting.” 

Yoda seemed completely unaffected by Palpatine's audible condescension. “Enlighten us you might, Chancellor. Concerned, the Council has become, that fight for the Republic the Grand Army will not.”

“Now the Jedi distrust the Army?” Palpatine shook his head slowly. “This is a perilous assertion, Master Yoda. Think how foolish you will seem when the Senate sees just how greedily you grasp for power.”

“We have evidence, Chancellor,” Mace Windu replied gravely. Luke might have been able to hear him without the microphones. Windu's voice echoed through the entire chamber. “It's over.” 

“Evidence? Evidence of what, I should ask!” Palpatine's shoulders drew up as he stalked deliberately toward Yoda. “If you have evidence of some crime, you ought to bring it before the proper authorities.” 

Yoda didn't give ground when Palpatine closed the distance between them. Palpatine was the one to stop three paces away. Yoda had both hands on his stick as he gazed up to meet Palpatine's eyes. “Always the concern of the Jedi a Sith Lord is.” 

Luke shivered. Even from his high vantage point, he could feel the change in the air as Palpatine slowly released the facade of harmlessness. 

“So be it,” Palpatine snarled as he lashed out. A stream of wavering blue light burst from his hands, hitting Yoda hard enough that the small green Jedi went flying back. Yoda hit the floor, bounced, and rolled to a stop. Palpatine's lightsaber was in position just a moment later as he parried Mace Windu's first strike. 

Luke could only trace the position of the three fighters by the color of their 'sabers. Mace was keeping his purple lightsaber strikes between Palpatine and Yoda, leaving Anakin's blue to strike from the edges. 

“You're making a mistake, Anakin!” Palpatine's arm snapped out. Mace Windu was shoved back several steps, leaving Palpatine time to bat Anakin's two-handed strike aside. “I know why you fear. I could save her.” 

Anakin's second attempt to strike was knocked aside just as easily. “I don't need your help!” 

“You know it is fated, Anakin.” When neither Anakin nor Mace attacked, Palpatine deactivated his lightsaber. “Without changing your fate, Padmé will die.”

“Maybe she would choose that over the kind of help you could offer.” Anakin's face was washed in the vivid blue of his 'saber. “You're a Sith Lord. We know that you ordered the clone armies and think their loyalty is with you. That doesn't sound like a man that wants to defend democracy.” 

“Seeing is believing, Anakin,” Palpatine said, snatching his communicator from his belt. “Be it on your head. Commander Cody!” Palpatine kept his eyes on Anakin even as a glimmering hologram appeared in his hand. “Execute Order 66.” 

“Acknowledged, sir,” the armored man in the hologram replied. 

Palpatine cut the connection and smirked as he tucked the communicator away. “You would have done better to stop me, Anakin, if you won't join the stronger side of the Force. Kenobi still hasn't left Coruscant. It is such a pity that the clones inside of your Temple do give their full loyalty to me.” 

Anakin attacked. He moved forward into an aggressive lunge, both hands on his 'saber, and didn't slow down when Palpatine's red blade deflected his strike. When Mace moved forward to join the fight, Palpatine shot blue light toward Mace. This time, Mace deflected the light with his lightsaber and stood his ground. 

Anakin stopped his charge. The blue light was starting to overwhelm Palpatine instead of Windu, it seemed, because Palpatine's face was starting to change. 

“Anakin!” Palpatine staggered back from Mace and fell to the ground. The strange blue light vanished before the red glow of his lightsaber disappeared a second time. “Anakin, please! I surrender!” 

Mace kept his guard up. This time, the blue of Anakin's 'saber vanished. Anakin bent to one knee and carefully reached out to take Palpatine's hand. 

Luke choked back a useless cry of warning. By the time Luke realized that the faint sound on the microphones was the beginning of a wild cackle, Palpatine had already lashed out with his lightsaber and cut Anakin's right hand off at the wrist. While Anakin reeled back, Palpatine slashed his left hand forward and shot blue lightning at Anakin, knocking him back.

Obi-Wan ran out of a shadowed alcove near one of the main entrances. Yoda was faster. Luke hadn't realized that the old Jedi was only biding his time. Before Obi-Wan could reach the group, Yoda had cleared the distance between him and Anakin in a dizzying series of flips to deflect the lightning back at Palpatine. Palpatine lunged forward toward both Jedi. Yoda used Anakin as a springboard several times to gain height as he parried several wild blows from Palpatine.

Obi-Wan was approaching too quickly to stop in time. Anakin could see it, too, because he was waving his left hand at Obi-Wan. Anakin shoved himself up to his knees, bracing himself on his left hand. Luke's breath caught even before Obi-Wan sprang off of Anakin's back into a wide arc above the rest of the combatants. Just when it seemed that a slash of Palpatine's lightsaber would bisect the Jedi, the fight was over with a decisive one-handed strike from Anakin's blade. 

Palpatine's head hit the ground. Luke shuddered at the sight even as he didn't mourn the loss. His father had rocketed up to his feet while Palpatine had eyes on Obi-Wan and the other Jedi had been focused on defense. 

Luke stumbled toward the turbolift. He hadn't had much to do in the fight but still felt like he was coming down from a big mission. Finding the Senate chamber was easy. Having someone draw a lightsaber on him when he was still shaking from an adrenaline letdown was harder. 

“It's okay, Master Windu,” Anakin said quickly. “He's with us.” 

Mace deactivated his lightsaber. He didn't look much less dangerous.

Obi-Wan stepped carefully around Palpatine's corpse as he walked closer, studying Luke all the while. “You're wearing Commander Cody's armor. You seem rather short for a clone trooper.” 

Belatedly, Luke remembered to take off the helmet. Some of the shakiness vanished as soon as his peripheral vision returned. “I've worn stormtrooper armor in the future so I knew it'd mostly fit. Long story.” He held out the communicator he'd also borrowed from Commander Cody. “We might have tried to get the inhibitor chip out and not bother with borrowing this getup if the chip wasn't in his head.” 

“All of the 'troopers are on communications lockdown,” Anakin said. Just as he had earlier, he didn't show much of a reaction to the idea. Cody's chip had been in his head. Luke's scanner had shown the same result on two other troopers before they settled on a decoy. “Cody put out signals that there's a spy in the ranks. All commanders should refuse to take orders that aren't in-person. We left Cody's communicator active and thought Palpatine would target the Jedi. Luke and I had just decided on a short-term plan when Palpatine called to meet with me, and he knew that Cody was in the hangar.” He glanced at the chancellor's body. “I... I hoped that it would end differently than this.” 

“You gave him every chance, Skywalker.” Windu clapped him on the shoulder briefly. “You did fine. How much of the hand did he get?” 

Anakin lifted his right arm. “Not enough to be a problem,” he said, turning the stump in the light. 

Luke gaped at the exposed metal and visible wires. 

“I've been meaning to build a new one.” Anakin grinned at Luke's shocked look. “You should see what Core has standard for prosthetics. It saves a lot of time when you want to make something a little better.” 

It had been a prosthetic. He'd thought wearing a glove was a fashion choice. “Well, maybe you can show me what kind of updates you add,” Luke said finally. “I'm glad you're okay.”

“Losing it the first time was upsetting. Losing it a second time almost feels careless,” Anakin quipped. He sobered when Luke's expression didn't changed. “I'm fine, Luke. Really.”

Eye contact alone might not have convinced him, but Luke could feel Anakin reaching out with the Force. His dad was going to be okay. Luke nodded and let himself start to think about what kind of features a prosthetic hand could have.

Obi-Wan took a careful hold of Anakin's elbow and then forearm to peer at the interrupted cuff of the prosthetic. Anakin put up with the close scrutiny while he used the Force to pull his detached hand close enough to grab. “I suspect everyone here will need to prove that to the medical wing. We'll be giving them all manner of practice this week. At the very least they'll have to replace this.” 

“I guess we should tell the Senate about this.” Mace looked dispassionately down at Palpatine's body. “I would hope that the cameras recorded the part where he was a Sith Lord. This won't help our reputation otherwise.” 

“I'll get the recordings as soon as I—um.” Anakin looked at Luke, first, and then Obi-Wan before turning to the other Jedi. “I think I might need to resign from the Order. I married Padmé years ago and she's pregnant with twins right now. Our twins. We didn't realize she was having twins until today. I'm not sure if that changes what public statements we'll be making.” 

Mace struck the heel of his hand against his forehead. “Right. That might change the statement a tiny bit when the Jedi's hero of the hour is a married man.”

“A distraction it will be.” Yoda stumped back over to the group. He banged his walking stick on the ground when Anakin flushed and looked away. “A most helpful distraction. If removed these chips can be, time we will need to help the clones.” 

Obi-Wan nodded slowly. “It will be quite the story, Anakin. I'm sure that every broadcast station in Coruscant and across the galaxy will want to interview you about this.” He smiled at Anakin's indignant look. “After you've recovered, of course, and taken the time to choose just which journalists have annoyed you least. If you do leave the Order, you're hardly bound by ideals of impartiality toward the press.” 

“I might not announce that Padmé is my wife or that she's pregnant for a while,” Anakin cautioned. He held up his stump arm. “I need to recover, after all, and this seems like enough of a reason to take a week.”

Yoda leaned forward on his stick as he gazed up at Anakin. “Leaving the Order in friendship you are, Skywalker. Shelter you and your wife we will.”

“That means no one in this Order has authority to take that 'saber from you and I doubt anyone will want to try,” Mace said bluntly. A small smile broke through his stoic demeanor. “You just took out a Sith, Skywalker. Good work.”

Anakin grinned. He pressed his severed hand to his chest and bowed. “I'll try to do something moderately impressive in retirement, Master Windu.” 

“I do not need any more Sith around here, I do not care if you get bored,” Windu warned. He still had a faint smile on his face as his voice remained gruff. “I don't need Sith-killers dealing with the immediate aftermath, either. Take Luke with you and go make sure that wife of yours and our guest are still safe. We can start figuring out whether Palpatine had apprentices around somewhere.” 

Anakin considered his communicator and the prosthetic he was still holding before gesturing to Luke and striding out of the Senate chambers. Luke guessed the probable rules of Coruscant traffic and just which ones they were breaking in the rapid trip back to the Jedi Temple. They might have broken a few guidelines about decorum as they raced through the Temple but neither one slowed until they reached the guest suite and knocked on the door.

Luke was still wearing Cody's armor. Anakin was carrying his robotic hand. Leia had to help Padmé stand up from the low chair. In his family's second group hug, Leia's hair was digging into Luke's shoulder, the rough edge of Anakin's stump was digging into his side, and either himself or his sister was kicking him from in utero. It was wonderful and Luke wasn't planning to move any time soon.

Even better, when he reached out to the Force, Luke was sure that he and Leia had a little more time in the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for your patience, everyone. Real life hit with a vengeance last month and I'm trying for a second consecutive National Novel Writing Month win this month. I'll probably still chip at a few scenes of this project along the way.[Kayasurin](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayasurin/pseuds/Kayasurin/) and [TheDoktor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoktor/pseuds/TheDoktor) helped to get this chapter in line after many failed drafts._


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